Heretofore, a large number of various plastic products which utilizes the characteristics of light weight, excellent processability, and resistance to corrosion and degradation have been commercially available and widely employed in human life and various industrial fields. On the other hand, corresponding to such circumstances, there is a tendency that the waste amount of the above plastic products after use has been increasing year by year. In addition, since the plastic products are substances resistant to corrosion and degradation, the waste products have caused a big problem of environmental pollution.
In response to such situation, instead of the above plastic products resistant to corrosion and degradation, various biodegradable resins easily degraded finally to water and carbon dioxide by organisms present in nature, especially microorganisms in soil and water have been developed and attracted attention as environmentally sound products.
A process for producing a polyhydroxy carboxylic acid as a biodegradable resin is disclosed in the Patent Document 1 specified below.
Patent Document 1: JP 10-204157 A